The Department of Surgery at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis (WUSM) requests continued funding to support a training grant in surgical oncology for surgical residents who are planning careers devoted to oncology in the specialties of general surgery, pediatric surgery, plastic surgery, and thoracic surgery. This grant will support an educational program in laboratory research in one of four basic science fields related to surgical oncology: cell and integrative biology, immunobiology, molecular biology and molecular genetics. Approximately three to five surgical residents are selected annually for this research training program through a rigorous and highly competitive process. The selection committee is composed of the Program Director of the Training Grant as well as the Advisory Committee. The majority of surgical oncology trainees will be from the WUSM surgical residency program. Occasionally, surgical residents from other clinical programs will be accepted. The residents selected begin the laboratory research after the second or third year of clinical training and may spend 1-4 years on the grant. The long-term objective of the program is to prepare surgical residents, through intensive educational programs and monitored experiences in laboratory research, to become independent scientific investigators and to acquire faculty positions in academic departments of surgery as well as to become leading clinical scientists. The success of this program to date is attested to by the fact that of the 21 residents who have completed their residency and this research training program over the past five years,13 now hold full-time positions in academic departments of surgery in the United States. [unreadable] [unreadable] The Department of Surgery at WUSM has approximately 45,000 net square feet of laboratory research space and over $15MM of peer reviewed annual direct research support, plus $2MM of annual direct clinical research support. Additionally, the basic science faculty members who can serve as preceptors occupy laboratory space totaling 21,000 net square feet. All of the relevant research laboratories are located in contiguous, convenient buildings on the WU Medical Center campus. The participating faculty have grant support in excess of $14.2MM (annual direct). [unreadable] [unreadable] Since August of 2001, the Siteman Cancer Center has been recognized as a clinical cancer center of the National Cancer Institute. Over this past year, there are approximately 6,000 new cancer cases treated in a multidisciplinary fashion at this institution and there is approximately $100MM of annual grant support in the Siteman Cancer Center. [unreadable] [unreadable]